Bethlehem Hospital blue plaque in London

The Bethlem Royal Hospital is a hospital for the treatment of mental illness located in London, United Kingdom and part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Although it has moved three times from its original location, it is recognised as Europe's first and oldest institution to specialise in mental illnesses. It has been known by various names including St Mary Bethlehem, Bethlem Hospital, Bethlehem Hospital and, informally and most notoriously, Bedlam.The Hospital is closely associated with King's College London and in partnership with the King's College London Institute of Psychiatry is a major centre for psychiatric research. It is part of both the King's Health Partners academic health science centre and the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health.Originally the hospital was sited near Bishopsgate just outside the walls of the City of London. It moved to Moorfields just outside the Moorgate in the 17th century, then to St George's Fields in Southwark in the 19th century, before moving to its current location at Monks Orchard near Croydon in 1930.The word bedlam, meaning uproar and confusion, is derived from the hospital's prior nickname. Although the hospital became a modern psychiatric facility, historically it was representative of the worst excesses of asylums in the era of lunacy reform.